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Professor Knox-Voina at the Russian Film Festival

SOCHI FILM FESTIVAL 1997

The smaller number of guests at the Sochi International Film Festival '97 did not mean that the organizers took the festival less seriously. Quite the contrary. It offered a "retrospective" of A. Sokurov's seldom seen, highly artistic films from the 1980-90s such as Maria (1978-1988) or The Stone (1992) in addition to his competition film Mother and Son (1997), short films from the Gosfilmofond's Russian collection of films from the 1960s and 1970s such as 1. Maslennikov and 1. Averbakh's The Private Life of Valentine Kuzev(1967) and 1. Sokolov's Day of the Sun and the Rain (1967).

The Russian competition films fell into the usual three categories: 1) fast action films or so-called "thriller killers" packed with sensational violence, 2) historical films revisiting Russia's glorious past, for example, V. Krasnopolsky and V. Uskov's Ermakdevoted to an epoch of brutal consolidation of Siberian hinterlands served up with a dose of Russian bravado and nationalism and 3) non-Russian films devoted to struggles and hardships in the various former republics of the Caucasus or Central Asia -- G. Haindrava's Cemetery of Reveries (Georgia) and M. Alieyv's The Night of the Yellow Bull (Turkmenistan). A few "good news films" (dobroe kino) had their happy endings such as the light comedies directed V. Novak (Princess on the Beans-Ukraine), and E.Ryazanov (Hello, Fools- Russia) where poor hardworking Cinderellas become born again princesses finding their "aristocratic" (literally) palaces with the help of a "dobryi molodets" (in each case a prince charming of dubious nature). A. Balabanov's Brother (1996) presents a "Hero of Our Time" carrying out the new tough street justice like a Russian style Schwarzeneger. Sergei Bordrov Jr. in the role of a seemingly simple, naive, anti-intellectual war veteran (assumably just back from active duty in the Caucasus). Once in the corrupt city, he reacts instinctively against social injustices as a brother to all good (and some not so good) Russians. Yet he acts mechanically without remorse, shooting first a Chechen mafia boss in the St. Petersburg's market and then many others. Hardened by war, he now kills automatically in a grim perversion of his first role in The Prisoner of the Caucasus (1996). Life now seems dispensable, particularly, if it is not that of a Russian. Far removed from Hollywood's political correctness and lacking in sensitivity, the film slanders homosexuals,Jews and peoples of the Caucasus. Criticism of the genre and theme aside, due praise must be given to young Bodrov, who, having been selected as best actor two years in a row, has rocketed from the obscurity of a university student to a box office hit.

Tribute must also be given to Kira Muratova's Three Stories, her first fast action film devoted to three murders and laced with her usual ironic humor: the viewer leaves not with the mere thrill of how fast or sensationally the killer does his, (or her) job, but with a feeling of horror at the insanity of a life not worth more than a bar of soap! (Boiler Room Number Six, the first story of the trilogy.) From among all the Russian directors trying to produce a Russian Pulp Fiction, only Muratova with her similar attraction to kitsch realizes that Tarantino chose to mock his killers, not set them up as heroes. by JANE KNOX-VOINA

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